Funny Motivational Speaker Blog

On september 24, 2014 I am a motivational speaker for the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association. The event being held at the Shaw convention center in Edmonton, Alberta will draw upwards of 1000 elected officials and senior administrators from urban municipalities throughout Alberta.

The theme of the event is Making All Matters Local.

I am presenting the motivational speech, Follow Me, I'm Right Behind You, as a break out session, mostly to city managers and senior administrators( Cheif Administrative Officers).

CAO's and city managers lead a diverse group of people from council members, public officials, staff department heads in various areas like public works, parks and recreation, public safety, police, finance, IT, HR and more.

Ultimately the CAO is responsible to report to city council, usually made up of 5 - 11 community stakeholders. The CAO follows councils direction, however, not all council members are always on the same page. Thus it becomes a challenging scenerio of managing multiple agendas and with limited resources.

Communities have ever increasing expectations of city council and it's administration. Everything from road closures to building permits, garbage clean up to large snowfalls that affect neighborhoods can be funnelled through city council to the CAO.

The CAO holds a very public profile. Today with so many means to communicate, including social media, everything (can be taken out of context) is broadcast. It is often challenging to defend yourself and not the best use of your time.

Overall the CAO and city manager set the tone for leadership of their municipality.

I look forward to being a motivational speaker for the Alberta Urban Municipalities conference. The website is